There is a fine
romance in carrying our lady's kerchief in an inner pocket, but
there is something higher and greater and much more durable in the
darning of a sock; for within the handkerchief there is chiefly
gratified vanity, while within the sock there is one of those small
infantile boots which have but little meaning for us.
Jocelyn entered the drawing-room with a smile.
"He is very pleased," she said. "He does not seem to want to see
you any more, and he told me to be inhospitable."
"As how?"
"He told me to turn you out. You are to leave by the next steamer."
He felt a sudden unaccountable pang of disappointment at her smiling
eyes.
"This is no joking matter," he said half seriously. "Am I really as
well as that?"
"Yes."
"The worst of it is that you seem rather pleased."
"I am--at the thought that you are so much better." She paused and
turned quite away, busying herself with a pile of books and
magazines. "The other," she went on too indifferently, "was
unfortunately to be foreseen. It is the necessary drawback."
He rose suddenly and walked to the window.
"The grim old necessary drawback," he said, without looking towards
her.
There was a silence of some duration. Neither of them seemed to be
able to find a method of breaking it without awkwardness.
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